There is a strong trend in the current market relating to connected watches having one or more electronic functions and capable of communicating, for example, with mobile telephones of the smart phone type. In the case of connected watches, the emphasis is, however, placed more on the range of electronic functions that such watches offer their users than on the aesthetic, timekeeping and impermeable qualities of such watches. The connected watches currently available on the market are thus unattractive and relatively fragile objects whose daily use requires a great deal of care on the part of the user.
Among available electronic functions, it may be envisaged to provide a pressure sensor allowing the user to store dive parameters (dive time, depth reached, temperatures), and then to save the history of his dive in a smart phone or in a personal computer. The pressure sensor may be housed inside the watch bracelet, to avoid having to modify the watch case that houses a timepiece movement, which might be mechanical, electronic or electromechanical. The watch case thus maintains all of its aesthetic, impermeable and timekeeping properties, while offering the user additional electronic functions, thanks to the addition of the bracelet of the invention.
However, incorporating a pressure sensor in a bracelet poses a problem. Indeed, the pressure sensor must be in contact with the medium whose pressure is to be measured. In the case of a diver's watch, the pressure sensor must therefore be in contact with water, which poses serious problems particularly in terms of sealing. In fact, if the pressure sensor is housed inside the bracelet, an orifice must be provided therein so that the pressure sensor can be in contact with the water. Since the bracelets or straps of connected watches are usually made of elastomer, the orifice must thus be created at the time of moulding the elastomeric material, or cut into the elastomeric material after moulding. In both cases, this requires extremely precise positioning of the various bracelet components, which is very difficult to achieve in the case of industrial production and means that the orifice must be sealed, typically by bonding, which poses problems of long-term reliability. Indeed, the bracelet is constantly subjected to bending and twisting movements to adapt to the shape and to the movements of the user's wrist and is subjected to high pressure during underwater dives. The orifice therefore risks losing its impermeability, which may result in destruction of the electronic components housed inside the watch bracelet.